Turkey blocks 3,700 websites

Turkey has blocked access to 3,700 internet websites including YouTube, GeoCities and some Google pages, the European human rights body Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has said in a report. The country’s internet law “not only limits freedom of expression, but severely restricts citizens’ right to access information,” Milos Haraszti, media freedom monitor at OSCE said in a statement.
“Some of the official reasons to block the Internet are arbitrary and political, and therefore incompatible with OSCE’s freedom of expression commitments,” he added.
However, a Turkish official denied the charges. “Turkey provides unlimited and equal access for all parts of society. It is above the EU average on this issue,” he told Reuters. “The regulations over internet have a dynamic structure and necessary legal changes are made when problems are detected in implementation,” he said.